Andrew Cuomo with the Times Union Editorial Board. (Will Waldron / Times Union)

Albany Bishop Howard Hubbard just released a statement in response to a canonical legal expert’s opinion that neither Gov. Andrew Cuomo nor his girlfriend Sandra Lee should receive Communion as long as they’re living together — or, as it’s known at the Vatican, in “public concubinage.”

The statement, in full:

There are norms of the church governing the sacraments which Catholics are expected to observe.

However, it is unfair and imprudent to make a pastoral judgment about a particular situation without knowing all the facts.

As a matter of pastoral practice we would not comment publicly on anything which should be addressed privately, regardless if the person is a public figure or a private citizen.

The statement, which is a rather elegant way of saying “buzz off,” is unlikely to do much to answer the concerns of Edward Peters, who first blogged on this question after Cuomo, his daughters and Lee attended Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception the day after his inauguration.

A few days later, Peters issued a stern j’accuse at Hubbard. From his blog post on the question:

It is Albany Bp. Howard Hubbard’s responsibility to see to it that the common discipline of the Church is promoted and that all ecclesiastical laws are observed, exercising particular vigilance against abuse of the sacraments and the worship of God. 1983 CIC 392. Unfortunately, Hubbard’s rah-rah inaugurational homily before Cuomo and Lee, in which, without admonition for their objectively and publicly sinful status, the prelate seemed to have anointed the pair as his kind of evangelizers in government, and his complicity in the administration of Communion to Cuomo, amounts, in my opinion, to another dereliction of pastoral duty.

Ouch! For context: Peters is also cheesed off at the slow process of getting the exorcism rite translated into English.

After an appearance this morning on Long Island, Cuomo commented on the matter in a style similar to Hubbard’s: “My religion is a private matter and it’s not something I discuss in the political arena,” he told reporters. “For me, I choose to keep my religion and my religious practices private and not discuss it in the political arena.”

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